The Autonomous Animal: Self-Governance and the Modern Subject

(Paperback)

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The Autonomous Animal analyzes how the ideal of self-governance has shaped everyday life. Claire E. Rasmussen points up how the war on drugs rests on the perception that drug addicts are the antithesis of autonomy and thus must be regulated for their own good. Showing that the animal rights movement may challenge the distinction between human and animal, Rasmussen also examines the place of the endurance athlete in fitness culture, where self-management of the body is the exemplar of autonomous subjectivity.

Reviews

"This captivating book is about the paradox of freedom that we moderns experience as the compulsion to autonomy. Whether we are becoming adolescents, addicts, vegans, or athletes we subject ourselves to become independent so that we can experience freedom. This drive to experience freedom divides those who become autonomous (mature and respectable) and those who must be governed. The book is an impressive intervention on the paradox of freedom that is at once a space of possibility and oppression. Claire E. Rasmussen shows a behind-the-scenes glimpse of intriguing and inspiring subjectivities through that space."Engin Isin, The Open University

"This book is a provocative, compelling, and wide-ranging analysis of the self-contained subject. Rasmussen both historicizes and critiques the concept of the sovereign self." Kennan Ferguson, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Author Bio

Claire E. Rasmussen is associate professor of political science and international relations at the University of Delaware.